Black Hole

Bury, and former Leeds manager, Kevin Blackwell has acquired two of Leeds’ young prospects; striker Dom Poleon and midfielder Zac Thompson, on one month loans. Bury is currently bottom of the L1 table (even below Hartlepool, Al!) and needs all the help it can get. But should that be of concern to Leeds?Blackwell was once Warnock’s understudy and I can see why Neil might want to help his old mate. But will loaning Poleon and Thompson to a struggling L1 club benefit these youngsters, or Leeds? The answer will depend on results.On the face-of-it, Warnock has thrown Poleon and Thompson into ‘the deep-end’ to see if they sink or swim (an old-fashioned idea, of which today’s Elf and Safety practices would defo not approve!) but the lads might feel aggrieved because, in terms of playing for Leeds this term, they have been placed in a no-win situation: if they do well at Bury their loans will be extended; if they don’t do so well they will be recalled to obscurity at Leeds.When rumours began about Leeds signing Ryan Hall I thought, “This is a slightly older version of Dom Poleon and won’t it put our own young striker’s nose out of joint”. I guess that, by farming out Poleon to another club, Neil is using his man-management skills to avoid dressing room unrest.Ryan Hall is four or five years ahead of Dom Poleon in his experience and, presumably, that is why Neil wants him now. But, if I was Dom Poleon, or Zac Thompson, having seen a junior team-mate, Sam Byram, who was no better than me, promoted to first team ranks, I might feel that being sent out on loan was the equivalent of entering a black hole.

Not sure I agree with all of that Andy, but I do see your point of view.We need another striker and Poleon could have fitted the bill, but Colin obviously believes he is not quite there yet, otherwise he would have put him in as he did Byram. He will get good feedback from Kevin as to the two lads performances, and no doubt will know where he wants to go from there.These are two of our more promising youngsters, but obviously not quite where Colin would like them to be, so he is getting them some league experience instead of more reserve games. That's how I see it rightly or wrongly. Only time will tell, and at least he can call them back quickly should the need arise.

I remember a young lad called Tom Lees being sent to Bury to gain first team experience, and having a blinding season winning player of the year and helping them win promotion and coming back to Leeds as a much more experienced player. Im all for sending out the kids to lower league teams if it is in the benefit of Leeds in the long run but I dont think that a months loan is long enough though, if they are to gain anything from being shipped out it needs to be at least half a season.